Report: TV Everywhere on the cusp of breakout year

The fruits of cable operators’ TV Everywhere efforts may start to ease the pain of basic video subscriber losses through increased revenues and less churn, but regardless of whether the numbers improve in upcoming earnings reports, multi-screen TV is slated for a big year.

Comcast kicks off the second-quarter earnings reports tomorrow, and while the nation’s largest cable operator has hinted that it may reverse the trend of basic video subscriber losses, the second quarter is typically weak due to college students disconnecting their services.

But according to a report by Infonetics Research, TV Everywhere is front and center this year.

“2012 will be a watershed year for TV Everywhere services, as operators across the globe closely watch Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable to see if adding these services will have a positive impact on subscriber churn and revenue,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research. “TV Everywhere and other multi-screen video initiatives are fundamentally changing the TV business model, with apps streaming live TV to iPads and telcos and cable companies offering home automation, security and video conferencing to subscribers in an effort to make the TV the hub of the digital home.”

The report focused on the VOD and encoder equipment and video subscribers and was released the same time as Infonetics’ hybrid IP set-top box study.

“Demand for digital, HD, and premium video content and services will continue to drive revenue growth in the VOD and encoder market, but the set-top box market won’t fare as well: Despite increasing demand, overall STB revenue is expected to decline starting in 2013, due to falling ASPs (average selling prices),” Heynen said.

Overall, Infonetics forecast that the global video infrastructure market, including IPTV and cable and satellite video infrastructure, would grow 9 percent this year to more than $875 million. The bulk of the future growth in the video infrastructure market will come from MPEG-4 HD encoders.

Five players accounted for more than two-thirds of the global VOD and streaming content service market: Huawei, Motorola, Cisco, ZTE and Concurrent. China is on pace to outspend all regions on VOD and streaming content server gear as operators, including China Telecom and China Unicom, add VOD streams.

Infonetics expected the number of IPTV subscribers to more than double from this year to 2016, when it will hit 168 million worldwide, with the majority of those new subscribers in Asia and Europe. Over that same timeframe, cable operators will still account for the bulk of the set-top boxes shipped.